Dr. Oz Talks About Food Allergies

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Food allergies are not only bothersome, they can be downright deadly.

Three Warning Signs of Food Allergies:

• Skin irritation




• Tingling in your mouth




• Swelling in the throat and difficulty breathing
  

Give it a second and the video will come on...if not, go HERE to see it from the Dr. Oz website

Oven Fries

I don't feel as bad serving these homemade fries that are baked and still have the skin on them :)

This recipe is free of milk, eggs, wheat, soy, peanuts, tree nuts, fish and shellfish

Ingredients

Extra Virgin Olive Oil (for drizzling)

4-5 medium potatoes (I used Russet potatoes), cleaned and cut into french fry size pieces

coarse salt and pepper

*Optional: other seasonings, I like Weber Grill Creations Roasted Garlic and Herb

Directions

Cut potato into french fry size pieces

drizzle with olive oil

Bake on 400 degrees until cooked through and crispy. Approximately 25-30 minutes.

These are great with Super Sloppy Joes! In my opinion, this is perfect "American Idol watching" food :) My 3 year old really looks forward to watching it.

Minestrone Soup

A week or so ago, we were supposed to get a few inches of snow (ha!), we got a light dusting. I thought this soup would be perfect to having simmering on the stove on a day that we might be stuck inside. This is one of my favorite soups that my grandmother made. I would request it for my birthday dinner quite often. Now, I love that it is packed with lots of veggies and is a healthful, delicious dinner option for my family.

This recipe is free of milk, eggs, wheat, soy, peanuts, tree nuts, fish and shellfish

Ingredients

extra virgin olive oil (for sauteing veggies)

1-2 lbs of stew meat cut into small pieces

4 cloves of garlic, pressed

3-4 large carrots, sliced (or you could use a small bag of matchsticks or baby carrots)

2-3 celery stalks, diced

3-4 large potatoes, cut into chucks

1 large onion, diced

1 9 oz box of frozen green beans

1 9 oz box chopped frozen spinach (no sauce), defrost and squeeze as much water as you can out of it

1/2 small head cabbage, coarsely chopped

32 oz. safe beef broth (I used Progresso...it is gluten free). Vegetable broth would work if you do not want to use beef broth.

2 14.5 oz can petite diced tomatoes (undrained) or 28 oz can (whatever you have on hand)

1 tsp. oregano (I threw in some fresh oregano from my garden)

coarse ground salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Crockpot

If you are using a crockpot (mine is not big enough for all of these veggies, etc.) Throw all of the ingredients in and let look for 8-10 hours. The longer it cooks, the more the flavors come together.

OR

Large Pot

In a large pot, saute garlic, carrots, celery, potatoes, onion and green beans in a little Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Add cabbage, beef broth, tomatoes and oregano. Heat until boiling. Reduce heat and simmer until veggies are tender. I let mine cook on low for about 4 hours.

It is going to look like there is not enough liquid, but you will get liquid from the vegetables as the soup cooks. At the end before you serve, you can either add more beef broth or some water to make it the consistency that you like if it is too thick.

To make this meal stretch further, you could serve it with small pasta. I do not mix it directly into the soup pot because it soaks up the liquid and it is not good frozen. If you put your pasta directly into the bowls when serving you will be able to freeze the rest of your minestrone for another time.

*You could also substitute other veggies like zucchini or squash...whatever your family likes! This is a great soup to make when you have stray veggies in your frig that you need to do something with :)

Allergen Free Treats

At our FACTS meeting last week, we were able to sample delicious cookies and cupcakes from Kateelayne Carefree Treats. The cookies were shaped like hearts (perfect for Valentine's day) and were beautifully decorated (made me feel like a kid again...who doesn't want to eat a heart shaped cookie?) Not only are the treats absolutely adorable to look at, but they taste delicious.

I PROMISE you would not be able to tell the difference if you had a regular treat or this allergen free treat next to one another (except Kateelayne's treats are much healthier since they do not have trans fat).

These treats are perfect to purchase for birthday parties, school parties or just to have in the freezer if you are invited somewhere where unsafe treats will be served. You or your child will not feel left out with these beautifully decorated, delicious treats (and they are so moist)!

All of the treats are made in a dedicated facility that is always peanut, dairy, egg, and nut free (there are also GLUTEN FREE cookies). Brody and I sampled they Gluten Free cookies and they are wonderful! My non-allergic three year old had one also and LOVED it!

It is so nice that we have a local business like Kateelayne Carefree Treats that is so forward thinking in the treats that they make.

Valentine's day is will be here before you know it!

Go over HERE and check out the website

Kateelayne Carefree Treats

998 B Davidson Road
Nashville TN 37205

Phone:615-942-8433

Fax:615-942-8472

Email: carefreetreats@kateelayne.com

Update for Safe Food at Cracker Barrel

From the previous post on Cracker Barrel, I have also added Wheat (gluten) options and information on peanuts CLICK HERE

If you would like to have a hard copy of this information, ask the manager to print it out for you. It is called Core Menu Item Recommendations For the 8 Major Food Allergens. I only listed milk, eggs, peanuts and wheat.

Cracker Barrel

Recently, my parents asked if we wanted to go to Cracker Barrel and they would treat us. Obviously, I wanted to go for a free meal, but I was hesitant because I thought there would be nothing for Brody to eat and he is at the point now that he sees us eating and wants what we have, so I didn't think that would be fair.

I decided to call and ask to speak to the manager. I figured at least bacon or sausage could be safe and I could bring him other food to supplement (This way, he could have something that we were eating). I explained the food allergy situation to the manger and he was extremely helpful. He told me that the meat is cooked on a separate grill from the eggs, etc. That sounded good to me, but then I thought, "What if someone ordered a cheeseburger and some of the cheese dripped onto the grill, etc.?" I know, I am thinking in extremes, but I want to be cautious. I expressed my concern to him about this remote possibility and he told me that they could clean the grill off before cooking Brody's food. He told me to ask for him when we arrived and he would take it from there (SO NICE!).

Not only did the manger take care of us when we were there, he brought me out a list of safe options. I am such a visual person...I love hard copies of information. This is probably another reason I started this blog to cut down on all of the papers I accumulate and to be able to have them accessible in one place.

This information was updated by Cracker Barrel on 1/03/10 and it must be from a handbook and on the bottom of the page, it says Quality Assurance.


Milk Allergen

The following food can be recommended for guests who are allergic to milk

• Breads: Sourdough Bread (regular and wheat), Westminster Crackers


• Apple Bran Muffins


• Eggs (fresh shell eggs only); Egg Beaters and Eggstrod'naire contain milk


• Grilled Meats: Bacon, Ham, Sausage, Grilled Chicken Tenders, Hamburger Steak-be careful to prevent cross-contamination from pancakes and breads other than sourdough, from cheese or from butter and margarine used to grill other foods.


• Dip Items: Meatloaf


• Side Items: Apple Sauce, Green Beans, Pinto Beans, Turnip Greens


• Tossed Salad, Grilled Chicken Tender Salad or Country Chef Salad (without Cheese, Egg and Croutons)


• The Following Salad Dressings do not contain Milk: Honey French (regular & fat free), Honey Mustard (regular & fat free), Thousand Island (regular & fat free), Reduced Calorie Italian
  

*All fried items should be avoided due to cross-contamination from the cooking oil.

Egg Allergen

The following foods can be recommended for guests who are allergic to eggs

• Breads: Biscuits, Sourdough Bread (regular and wheat), Westminster Crackers


• Grilled Meats: Bacon, Ham, Sausage, Grilled Chicken Tenders, Hamburger Steak, Ribeye and Sirloin Steaks-be careful to prevent cross contamination from Pancakes and French Toast


• Dip Items: Roast Beef and Gravy, Chicken and Dumplings, Turkey and Gravy


• Side Items: Apple Sauce, Green Beans, Pinto Beans, Turnip Greens


• Tossed Salad, Grilled Chicken Tender Salad or Country Chef Salad (without Egg, Cheese and Croutons)


• The following Salad Dressings do not contain Egg: Honey French (regular & fat free), Fat Free & Reduced Calorie Italian, Fat Free Ranch, Fat Free Thousand Island

*All fried items should be avoided due to cross contamination from the cooking oil

Wheat (Glutens) Allergens
The following can be recommended for guests who are allergic to wheat

• Eggs and Grilled Meats: Bacon, Sausage, Grilled Catfish, Grilled Chicken Tenders, Hamburger Steak, Ribeye and Sirloin Steaks-be careful to prevent cross contamination from Pancakes and French Toast
• Side Items: Apple Sauce, Carrots, Corn, Green Beans, Pinto Beans, Turnip Greens

*All fried items should be avoided due to cross-contamination from the cooking oil.

Peanut Allergies

Cracker Barrel does not cook with peanut oil and does not add peanuts to any of our menu items. The core menu items are peanut free. Please carefully check all labels for any promotional items, weekly specials, and regional menu items.

The items that are in bold are safe for Brody (milk, eggs, peanuts and wheat) as long as there is no cross contamination.

Many of the mothers at the FAAN meeting this week also expressed that they have had a good experience at Cracker Barrel and managers have went as far as to bring out labels on items for the parents to read to ensure that it was safe for their child. It is nice to know Cracker Barrel has some safe options, especially when you are traveling. You know you are going to drive by a ton of Cracker Barrel's on your way to your destination. Just hope that you get a manager who goes out of his/her way to accommodate and make you feel comfortable about how the food is being prepared.

One more thing I will add: on the back of my paper the manager put the label for the White Sourdough Bread. I figured I would just add this information since I had it.
White Sourdough Bread: ingredients: flour (wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, iron, potassium bromate, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin), water, sugar, corn oil, potato flakes (dehydrated potatoes, mono and diglycerides, sodium acide pyrophosphate, citric acid., A natural mixed tocopherols [a natural source of vitamin E] added to protect freshness), salt.

One more safe eating out option to add to the list!

Read Your Labels..Again and Again...

I made a mistake tonight that if I hadn't had caught in time, would have cost us a night in the Emergency Room.

I ran to Kroger before making dinner. I was making sloppy joes and needed tomato paste. I buy tomato paste all of the time and know that it is safe. I was in a hurry, grabbed the tomato paste and came home to prepare dinner. As I was dumping the tomato paste into the sloppy joes, I saw what looked like black flakes. I began searching for the expiration date because I thought it might be expired because it looked weird to me...not my usual tomato paste. The expiration was fine, 2011. I then started to put it together and looked at the front label...ITALIAN TOMATO PASTE. Ok, so that weired stuff I realized was oregano...so I flipped to look at the ingredients on the back and I read that it contained MILK. Oh yes, there was CHEESE in the Italian tomato paste. Are you kidding me??? (FYI: It was Kroger Italian Tomato Paste...stay away, I repeat...stay away if you have milk allergies).

I was thankful that I realized the mistake before I serving it to Brody, but was disappointed that my safe sloppy joes were no longer safe. This just made me realize...you can never be too careful and always read labels before you dump your ingredients in...even if you think it is safe, or it has been safe in the past. Manufacturers change ingredients all of the time OR like me, you can buy the wrong type.

Milk hides in a lot of ingredients that you would never think of....boullion cubes and some seasonings just to name a few...it is crazy!